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Photoshop - Storyboards and the Process of Presentation Design

Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Design, the world’s leading presentation design firm. Clientsinclude Al Gore and the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Much of our communication today exhibits the quality of intangibility. Services, software, causes, thought leadership, change management, company vision—they’re often more conceptual than concrete, more ephemeral than firm. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But we regularly struggle when communicating these types of ideas because they are essentially invisible. It’s difficult to share one’s vision when there’s nothing to see. Expressing these invisible ideas visually, so that they feel tangible and actionable, is a bit of an art form, and the best place to start is not with the computer. A pencil and a sheet of paper will do nicely.

Why take this seemingly Luddite approach? Because presentation software was never intended to be a brainstorming or drawing tool. The applications are simply containers for ideas and assets, not the means to generate them. Too many of us have fallen into the trap of launching our presentation applications to prepare our content. In reality, the best creative process requires stepping away from technology and relying on the same tools of expression we grew up with—pens, pencils, crayons if you’re into hardcore regression. The goal is to generate ideas—not necessarily pictures yet— but lots of ideas. These can be words, diagrams or scenes; they can be literal or metaphorical; the only requirement is that they express your underlying thoughts. The best thing about this process is that you don’t need to figure out how to use drawing tools or where to save the file. Everything you need you already have (and don’t say you can’t draw; you’re just out of practice). This means you can generate a large quantity of ideas in a relatively short amount of time. And that’s what we’re going for right now: quantity.

For me, one idea per sticky note is preferable. And I use a Sharpie. The reason? If it takes more space than a Post-it and requires more detail than a Sharpie can provide, the idea is too complex. Simplicity is the essence of clear communication. Additionally, sticky notes make it easy to arrange and re-arrange content until the structure and flow feels right. On the other hand, many people on my team use a more traditional storyboarding approach, preferring to linearly articulate detailed ideas. That’s fine, too. The point is not to prescribe exactly how to work, but to encourage you to generate a lot of ideas and to do so quickly.

Often ideas come immediately. That’s good, but avoid the potential pitfall of going with the first thing that comes to mind. Continue to sketch and force yourself to think through several more ideas. It takes discipline and tenacity—especially when it feels like you solved it on the first try. Explore words and word associations to generate several ideas. Use mind mapping and word-storming techniques to create yet more ideas (digital natives might prefer mind mapping software for this phase). Stronger solutions frequently appear after four or five ideas have percolated to the top. Continue generating ideas even if they seem to wander down unrelated paths; you never know what you might find, after all. Then, once you’ve generated an enormous amount of ideas, identify a handful that meet the objective of the vision or concept you’re trying to communicate. It matters less what form they take at this point than that they get your message across.

By the way, cheesy metaphors are a cop-out. If you feel tempted to use a picture of two hands shaking in front of a globe, put the pencil down, step away from the desk, and think about taking a vacation or investigating aromatherapy. Push yourself to generate out-of-the-box ideas. Take the time and spend the creative energy because the payoff will be a presentation people not only remember, but one they take action on.

Now, begin to sketch pictures from the ideas. These sketches become visual triggers that spark more ideas. The sketching process should be loose and quick—doodles really. Search through stock houses, magazines, even YouTube for images and vignettes to reference while sketching. Generate as many pictures as you can, and while that’s happening start to think about layout to ensure that the elements work spatially on a slide. In this way, sketching serves as proof-of-concept because ideas that are too complex or time consuming or costly will present themselves as ripe for elimination. Don’t worry about throwing things away&dash;that’s why you generated a lot of ideas in the first place. In fact, you’re ultimately going to have to throw all of them away except for one (designers recognize this as the destructive aspect of the creative process; it’s a good thing).

Some of the ideas you generate may require multiple scenes built across a few slides versus a snapshot on a single slide. On the other hand, sometimes it’s as simple as using the perfect picture or diagram. Getting your great idea across might require that you manipulate an image, create a custom illustration or produce a short video. Focus on whatever works best, not on the idea that’s easiest to execute. Now, find a colleague and walk them through your sketches. Have them give you feedback on what works best in the context of your audience and personal style. They’ll likely have insights that will improve your idea.

Here’s where it gets a bit more difficult. Depending on the concept you’ve identified as the one best suited to convey your idea, you may or may not have the skills to execute the idea digitally. Be prepared to enlist the help of a designer (you did plan far enough ahead to make sure you’ve got one available, right?) There’s no shame in seeking professional help, after all; what’s important is effective communication, regardless of whether or not you have the skill set to execute it.

Insider Tip 1: If you prefer the storyboarding approach, streamline it by creating six blank text slides in your master template. Print them out as 6-up handouts and you’ll have a master storyboard sheet with miniature blank slides in the correct aspect ratio. Each slide contains the graphical background elements from your template, and anything you sketch would be within the framework of any visual brand elements in your template.

Insider Tip 2: When sketching for a client, it’s important to listen to what they say, but it’s more important to identify the underlying intent of what they didn’t say. Sketch while they talk so they can see how their words are being interpreted. Try to sketch three unique ideas that accurately reflect their content.

Below are sample sketches from Duarte Design giving a glimpse of how pros refine the visualization of their ideas on paper before creating slides in software. 

 [Source: graphics.com - April 2008 -  Nancy Duarte (Excerpted from Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds (New Riders)) ]